At the end of that time he learned that Henry, having marched
into Cardigan and ravaged the country there, was already retiring; his
army having suffered terribly from the effects of the weather, the
impossibility of obtaining supplies, and the constant and harassing
attacks by the Welsh.
Glendower was often absent, but when at the house he conversed freely
with Oswald, who was no longer surprised at the influence that he had
obtained over his countrymen. His manners were courteous in the
extreme, and his authority over his followers absolute. They not only
reverenced him as their prince, the representative of their ancient
kings, and their leader in war, but as one endowed with supernatural
power.
The bards had fanned this feeling to the utmost, by their songs of
marvels and portents at his birth, and by attributing to him a control
even over the elements. This belief was not only of great importance to
him, as binding his adherents closer to him; but it undoubtedly
contributed to his success, from the fact of its being fully shared in
by the English soldiery; who assigned it as the cause of the
exceptionally bad weather that had been experienced, in each of the
three expeditions into the country, and of the failure to accomplish
anything of importance against him.
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